I want kids engaged in creative, joyful learning. I wouldn't mind if they knew a little grammar too!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Frisch LEADs Continues to Inspire

The student-designed learning taking place for the Frisch LEADs project this year continues to inspire me. To become familiar with what Mrs. Ruth Wang-Birnbaum, Rabbi Dan Rosen and I are asking our AP English Literature seniors at The Frisch School to do, click on the following links:

I've blogged before about stellar examples of the student projects, and I continue to be impressed with the students' work. Here are some highlights from Frisch LEADs:

1) Of Fathers and the Godfathers
R. Freilich is writing about mafia families, combining her and her family's, particularly her and her father's, love of watching mafia movies. It's so appropriate that R. Freilich has chosen to do a project on the mafia because of a bond she shares with her father. All irony aside, I love the fact that R. Freilich's project is based on good times she has shared with her own family, so that school can be a place not only to deepen learning about a topic the family has introduced into a student's life, but also a space to validate and grow an emotional bond a student feels with her parents and siblings.

For the latest blog post assignments, I had students use their new knowledge of poetic techniques, learned while we studied Hamlet, to write a poem on their Frisch LEADs topic. R. Freilich distinguished herself as a poet by using imagery and allusion to great effect in her poem, Creation. Check out her blog post, Mafia Poetry, a genre I don't think is explored enough in the canon. All that may soon change; check this out:

2) Interdisciplinary Project on Charity
E. Levine is another student doing a great job on her Frisch LEADs assignment, particularly because of her interdisciplinary analysis of charity. I especially liked how E. Levine was able to use a work she had read in her sophomore year, The Canterbury Tales, in order to create a literary tie to charity. I didn't suggest the connection to Chaucer; all I asked the student to do was include a work of literature in the project. It was E. Levine who drew on her own knowledge, came up with The Canterbury Tales, and then applied it in a sophisticated way to her project. Check out E. Levine's layered look at doing good:

Reading about how A. Rubin's project evolved from the beginning of the year until now is fascinating, as you can find out how her idea develops from being about myth in different cultures to perspectives on beauty. A. Rubin's project is also notable for the way she wants to make what she has learned relevant and meaningful for The Frisch School community by planning an event for the freshmen that the seniors run. Creating purpose to deepen the learning experience is one of the goals of Frisch LEADs. Check out A. Rubin's thoughtful blog here:

I wanted to share C. Zucker's blog in order to show you the range of the Frisch LEADs' projects. So far, you've seen projects on mafia families, charity and differing ideals of beauty. Let's now add sharks to that list, and let me share C. Zucker's engaging and visually exciting blog, which makes great use of the medium and its ability to hold text, images and film easily. What I love about this blog is that this topic is so obviously an interest of the student's, and I don't know when else in high school she would have had the chance to explore it.

E. Rosen continues to impress her classmates by the depth and breadth of her research. She's also happy to share her work with the world and allow anyone to gain from the information she has accumulated. See also on E. Rosen's blog her thoughts on student use of her work and whether she's encouraging laziness in peers studying myth by gathering so many stories for them to use in their work. Another thought-provoking blog post by this student blog shows her meta-cognition, as she muses about the demographics of the people reading her posts.

About Me

I'm Chief Academic Officer at Magen David High School in Brooklyn, NY and an advocate of passion-based learning. I co-Founded and am Director of the I.D.E.A. Schools Network, which helps Jewish and independent schools implement project-based learning and educational innovation. Check out our website at ideaschoolsnetwork.com, and watch my ELI Talk on passion-based learning at http://elitalks.org/why-we-need-passion-based-learning-jewish-education!